I have some very long playlist files which I keep adding files to.
I noticed that there are some duplicates (tracks which I didn't realize I had already added, and added again). Has anyone found a way to locate an then remove duplicates in long playlist files (other than manually doing so? Since the entries are not sorted it would be hard to see where dupes are).

Is there any program (like Sansa Playlister) which can create playlists from my computer (in MSC mode)? Playlister was great but it creates *.PLA files which do not run in rockbox. I loved that program! I am liking rockbox a lot, but miss the functionality of Sansa Playlister.

Right, but string manipulation is kind of painful in dos. That's why I use bash, perl, etc. I actually had written something similar to check duplicate folders on internal storage vs. sd card for my j3, but I can't seem to find it now.

Is there any program (like Sansa Playlister) which can create playlists from my computer (in MSC mode)? Playlister was great but it creates *.PLA files which do not run in rockbox. I loved that program! I am liking rockbox a lot, but miss the functionality of Sansa Playlister.

Does anyone know of a similar program to Sansa Playlister that works with rockbox?

I was able to open the playlist in notepad, copy ALL, and then paste the list into Excel.
Thankfully, each line of the playlist is entered into a separate cell down the column of the spreadsheet. If you then do DATA | SORT, the column is put into alpha order and you can at least quickly see where you have duplicates. You still have to go back to notepad and manually remove one of each duplicate, but at least it helps locate duplicates quickly.

Any software that creates .m3u or .m3u8 playlists can be used to create playlists for a Rockboxed player. I use foobar2000 after setting it the way marc2003 outlines here. The setup seems complex but if you follow the steps properly it only needs to done once. After that you just place the files in a playlist and save it. The paths will be right for the playlists to always work.

You can edit your existing list that has duplicates easily using foobar2000 if all the files are on a single drive. Just open the playlist and use the Remove Duplicates function and save it again. If the files are on both the internal and external memories you'll need to correct the file paths for foobar2000 to see the files from both memories.

Rockbox saves the path to the external memory as /<micoSD1>/. If you open the playlist in a text editor and do a Find and Replace to change that to \:your drive letter\ foobar2000 should see all the files and then be able to remove any duplicates.

One thing, foobar2000 sees duplicates as the same file in the same location. If the duplicate entries are in different locations or have different extensions they aren't seen as duplicates and won't be removed.

skip252,
Thanks for letting me know about foobar2000.
I hadn't heard of it.
I will study it and give it a try.
I have a question about what your wrote:

Rockbox saves the path to the external memory as /<micoSD1>/. If you open the playlist in a text editor and do a Find and Replace to change that to \:your drive letter\ foobar2000 should see all the files and then be able to remove any duplicates.

Once you find and replace /<micoSD1>/ to become \:U\
[where drives are T: and U:]
is that just a temporary edit, just while running foobar2000?
I.E. If you saved that, would the playlist still run in rockbox?

Also I noticed that you changed front slashes (/) to backslashes (\).
Do you have to do that for the other slashes in each track's listing as well?
Otherwise you'd have both front and backslashes in same track entry.

The only path corrections I've found necessary for foobar2000 to read the playlist is the one I listed. After that fb2k was able to read the rest of the playlist.

When I saved it back to the playlist folder I use the marc20003 setup I have as my standard and the playlists work properly. You may want to experiment with saving the playlists in different places if you don't want to bother with that setup. I use that setup because it suits my needs, your may quite possibly be different.

Rockbox will strip away drive assignments to different levels depending on the save location of the playlist. Playlist saved directly to the root of the external card as .m3u or .m3u8 using foobar2000, Winamp, XMPlay, MusicBee or even (ugh!) Windows Media player should work just fine with no additional editing.

That's one of the reasons I never found a use for a specialized program like the one you mention to make playlists for Rockbox. Any playlist maker that can create a .m3u playlist works. If you really want to you could make your playlists with a text editor.

BTW, there's no need to import anything into the Winamp library to use it as a playlist maker. Just drag the files into the Playlist Editor, arrange them the way you want, then save the playlist in the root of the external card. The OF won't play it but Rockbox will.

I strongly suggest experimenting with various playlist makers. foobar2000 suits my needs. Before that I used XMPlay and did a simple find and replace in a text editor to fix file paths. I mentioned Windows Media Player because I have a friend that manages a Rockboxed Fuze with that and loves it. You couldn't beat me with a stick and make me use WMP but it works for them.

For me a big part of the attraction of rockbox is that it frees me to manage my music in a way that works for me. I think a with a bit of experimentation it shouldn't be tough for you to find what works best for you.

Edit:

I insert and remove cards on my Rockboxed players on the fly. I make sure it's not being read as part of a playlist or attempt it as I'm accessing the files on the player but other than that I exchange them without shutting down. When I exchange a card I get a brief message it's reading the card and it's ready to go.

Thank you Skip252.
I appreciate your detailed explanation.
I installed foobar2000 and followed the instructions and it has worked as you said.

In terms of inserting/removing micro cards while rockbox is running you said:

I insert and remove cards on my Rockboxed players on the fly. I make sure it's not being read as part of a playlist or attempt it as I'm accessing the files on the player but other than that I exchange them without shutting down. When I exchange a card I get a brief message it's reading the card and it's ready to go.

Could you please explain how I make sure it's not being read as part of a playlist. I am usually playing some playlist. Are you saying that if the loaded playlist contains any files from the card, then don't remove it?
Would I have to load a different playlist that did not have any tracks from the external card before removing it?

Actually, I just tried to open a playlist in Foobar2000 that had one track from internal and one from external.

You had written:

Rockbox saves the path to the external memory as /<micoSD1>/. If you open the playlist in a text editor and do a Find and Replace to change that to \:your drive letter\ foobar2000 should see all the files and then be able to remove any duplicates.

But the only way I could get foobar to "see" the external track was to have replaced the /<microSD1>/ with X:\
(not \:your drive letter\)

Thanks for your suggestion of winamp. But I'm assuming you'd have to import all the music into a winamp library. I'm hoping to find a program that will not require this so you can create playlists on the computer with the e280 plugged into usb -- working directly with the tracks on the player.

Thanks for your suggestion of winamp. But I'm assuming you'd have to import all the music into a winamp library. I'm hoping to find a program that will not require this so you can create playlists on the computer with the e280 plugged into usb -- working directly with the tracks on the player.

Not really. Just set up Winamp to "watch" your Player and/or card drives as the default. Piece of cake as they say.

Seems my save paths are different. I have the the leading "/" that your playlist didn't. No matter, you have it working and that's the most important part.

As far as changing the card I use the context menu that comes up with a long Select and check the playing song's properties. If the playing file isn't from the card I'll change the card and start playback of a new playlist.

I've found that if I let the playlist continue it may play normally skipping any missing files or it may throw an error message about not being able to access the playlist control. If I start a new list to playing, playback continues without interruption.